DSS Expire for End User

[leegoodman]

All anti-virus programs expire if not renewed. You still have the protection, but no more updates, support, etc.

Some folks are selling DSS as an annual or monthly subscription.

So what happens when the client decides to end the subscription? Does DSS stop working?

What happens near the end of the subscription? Does the client receive a reminder to continue (similar to a/v software)?

In other words Does DSS continue to run even after the subscription as expired?

Thanks everyone for your insight into my questions!

[laplandz]

Some background info:
I give a free version of DSS (i name it AfterCare) to roughly 90% of customers who pass through our workshop, this "free" version allows them to manually run 3 house-keeping apps but most importantly, it gives a link to our paid for auto-maintenance which completes the housekeeping on a weekly basis.

With that said, it's down to my company to deal with the expiration of any subscription i may offer, i'm unsure how else an expiration could happen. I'm not being frigid here, it’s just you can do, what you want to do, when the subscription ends.

This next bit… I’ve assumed you’re actually enquiring how a subscription can end and what DSS can do about it… tell me to shove whatever up my own arse if incorrect

DSS works on templates and my usage/mileage is to on the final stage of any repair, install our free AfterCare app which acts as a business card from our own perspective. If any customer wanted to automate or schedule-weekly general maintenance, I simply change their template to either “Sub-Std” or “Sub-Std-SSD”. It’s a piece of piss to change the template too, it’s literally a few clicks to change it, I feel somewhat “guilty” in charging customers £40 a year when it takes 5 seconds to make this alteration.
That is until I realise it took far too long to learn how to do this efficiently. It’s been a fuck-load of months since I’ve seen a return on my initial investment from subs alone, but… the feedback, returning customers and referrals we've received because of it, vastly outweighs the lack of updates offered to DSS.

I use the terribly un-sophisticated method of using the calendar in outlook to register when the customer is 10 months into their sub, i then email them at that point, then again when two weeks away, then i change them back to the freebie version (although i haven't had to do this yet) when 370 days or so has passed, if they re-subscribe, i simply re-enter the info into outlook.

You need to realise it is mostly white-label and is complicated to understand from scratch, but customer satisfaction is key and DSS can, used wisely open new doors of revenue.

Hope that helps…

Lee

[leegoodman]

Thanks for your help. That's exactly what I needed to know.

I'm just starting to use D7 but can see the value in DSS as well.

You mentioned "then I change them back to the freebie version".

This change is done without the need to log in to their PC? So each person you provide AfterCare for has a unique "Sub-Std-SSD"?

Don't feel guilty for £40 a year, I am thinking to make it more like £100 a year. As you said, it takes a long time to learn how to do this efficiently and the automatic help is well above and beyond anything else out there today.

Thanks!

[laplandz]

part of the install on the client machine is to set a config/client id, I currently set each machine a unique id so I can change the config later on a per machine basis, but you could for example set 5 machines the same id if preferred.

the client machines update their config on a scheduled basis or every time they open it. because of this it kind of changes "live".

I only offer AfterCare to existing customers who have already spent some monies with me and only have it completing general maintenance, it doesn't come with remote support or many other benefits to be honest other than discounted labour rates.
We had thoughts about a tiered system but went against it as logistically speaking, dSS is hard enough to maintain. For example, we have over 400 unique client id's and recently, me being a dick accidentally changed the Gmail password which we use for AfterCare's SMTP settings (if you're not aware, Google won't allow you to change the password back to a previous one). The headache here is in dSS you can change multiple id's at once, but I had to do it in groups of 20-30 as it would crash out. We had made some minor changes or client based customisations which had to be lost because of this. not the end of the world, but was annoying.

Overall though, despite its lack of updates and loving, i can just about live with it after adjusting my intended requirements from it. It can work and do some useful stuff when setup correctly but ultimately, it could do so much more, i'm assuming Nick is gonna need the world to start using a 36 hour day before this is likely to happen though.

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EDIT:
Made some minor text alterations as it read a bit robotic, thats what you get for writing a reply on a frickin phone!!

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[Nick]

It’s been a fuck-load of months since I’ve seen a return on my initial investment from subs alone, but… the feedback, returning customers and referrals we've received because of it, vastly outweighs the lack of updates offered to DSS.

That, at least, is pretty good to read - and I promise you I'm working on the update situation now.

Overall though, despite its lack of updates and loving, i can just about live with it after adjusting my intended requirements from it. It can work and do some useful stuff when setup correctly but ultimately, it could do so much ore, i'm assuming Nick is gonna need the world to start using a 36 hour day before this is likely to happen though.

Starting to think that myself! I wanted you to know that I began to focus on some fundamental management issues with dSS last week, but somehow I haven't written a line of code since then!! (to be fair, I've either been in design/concept stage, or I've just been doing taxes...) I think by next week I can start coding this new system to sit side-by-side with the existing one, yet allow easy migration.

With the right design, a better new system would also provide easy addition of functionality to do exactly what the OP is about, and I would like to get it there... so if you have the opportunity check into this post for a link to my notes and to contribute any thoughts on them as they relate to what you need from dSS. viewtopic.php?f=25&t=2215 Thanks!

[laplandz]

It’s been a fuck-load of months since I’ve seen a return on my initial investment from subs alone, but… the feedback, returning customers and referrals we've received because of it, vastly outweighs the lack of updates offered to DSS.

That, at least, is pretty good to read - and I promise you I'm working on the update situation now.

It was all meant as a positive , it took me ages to get AfterCare going, it's got to be said and i don't think it came across the way intended after re-reading it, but i was trying to work out dSS in my spare time giving it only a few hours here and there in the evenings. With staff issues, being a single parent and blah blah other reasons i took far too long to get to a point i was happy to start selling it.

Overall though, despite its lack of updates and loving, i can just about live with it after adjusting my intended requirements from it. It can work and do some useful stuff when setup correctly but ultimately, it could do so much ore, i'm assuming Nick is gonna need the world to start using a 36 hour day before this is likely to happen though.

Starting to think that myself! I wanted you to know that I began to focus on some fundamental management issues with dSS last week, but somehow I haven't written a line of code since then!! (to be fair, I've either been in design/concept stage, or I've just been doing taxes...) I think by next week I can start coding this new system to sit side-by-side with the existing one, yet allow easy migration.

It sounds like you're in the process of giving dSS some lovin which i can't wait to see. i gave the OneNote article a once over and it looked proper in depth, i'll get to grips with it properly soon but from i what i read, it's looking good and i'll direct comments on it in the rightful thread.